About Shelby:

Photo on 6-25-16 at 5.16 PM #2

Shelby grew up in the Pacific Northwest and spent many weekends being shaped by city life and the forests and mountains. She had been aware of issues of social and environmental injustice from an early age and wanted to pursue either social work or forest conservation. Shelby thought they were two separate worlds and that to devote herself to one meant she would neglect the other. In high school she learned about environmental justice and ecofeminism and realized, “Holy cow, it’s all connected! If we work from this standpoint, everybody’s lot is bound to improve.” About this time Shelby also became aware of the effects of nutrition on mental health and decided to go into natural medicine. Natural medicine is where she saw she could do the healing work she saw our world needed. Shelby is particularly passionate about where public health and environmental justice intersect with issues of trauma, marginalization and mental health. For this vocation she’s pursuing licensure in acupuncture here in Portland Oregon at POCA Technical Institute.

For the past 2 years Shelby has been a member of the Wilderness Way Community, where she gets to see people practicing radical love and acceptance while following calls for radical systemic change. She is currently exploring how she can bring recovery principles and practices into environmental justice work.

About Shelby’s project:

For her project she is designing and facilitating a practice group for EcoFaith Recovery’s Practices of Awakening Leadership. All those interested in learning practices to either find or sustain your calling to work which supports life on this planet are welcome and encouraged to join!

Intern – Shelby Smith

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